Friday, August 14, 2009

08/13/09 Ransom Hunter Flat

Ransom and I worked on side reins on the lunge line to warm up - He moved out nicely, no lunge whip needed to motivate him. Stayed on a big circle, too. His down transitions are still slow for reaction. I had to use "Whoa" pretty forcefully a few times,, darn it!

I hopped on (hunt saddle), and we got to work. Walk, halt, walk, halt, walk, halt. I repeated this a while both directions. Threw a little free walk in there to change it up. Then I repeated all the same with trot, walk, trot, walk, trot, walk. Things improved quite a bit.

Focused the canter work on him having a little collection, but more focused on my balance & seat. Heels down heels down heels down. Both directions got better as we went along. I also did a little canter in two-point, and found out why that's so darn comfortable. With heels down, and balance just over the front of the saddle, I felt him "cantering into me" - pretty cool.

Finished up with more of the trot to walk and walk to halt transitions. Overall, not too shabby.
Total work including warm up, just about an hour.

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